1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process for increasing the recovery of non-magnetic heavy minerals from lower specific gravity non-magnetic minerals, in materials such as ores, heavy mineral sands, tailings, and residues.
2. Description of the Related Art
In conventional gravity separators, differences in the specific gravities of the different individual minerals or phases making up the feed mixture are used to accomplish the separation of high specific gravity minerals from the low specific gravity minerals or phases. A wide variety of separator types has been used in such separation operations including spirals, Reichert cones, sluices, shaking tables, and various other gravity separators.
In recent years it has been discovered that conventional gravity separators can be modified by the addition of magnets to improve the recovery of magnetic and weakly-magnetic minerals, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,565,624, issued Jan. 21, 1986 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,457, issued Apr. 21, 1987, both in the name of E. Martinez, and U.S. Patent application Ser. No. 07/798,037 in the name of E. Martinez, relating specifically to modification of cast-iron spirals.
It would be a significant advance in the art, and is an object of the present invention, to provide a process whereby the concentration of high specific gravity non-magnetic minerals or phases can be improved compared to that achievable by conventional gravity separation.
It is another object of the invention to provide a low-cost, environmentally safe process for improving the recovery of non-magnetic heavy minerals, such as rutile, zircon, tin, and gold.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a means for improving the gravity separation process for recovery of high specific gravity non-magnetic minerals or phases, such as rutile, zircon, gold, tin, etc., by means of a gravity-magnetic type separator.
These and other advantages will become apparent from the following more detailed description of the invention.